Top Ten political winners and losers of 2010

Rep. John Boehner is overcome by emotion as he talks about his working-class roots.

It’s been a momentous and turbulent year in American politics. President Obama’s popularity tanked and Republicans seized control of the House. The Tea Party burst onto the scene, with significant success, and billionaire business people tried to buy elective office, with limited success.

So who were some of the big political winners and losers of 2010? Here’s our list:

Winners

John Boehner

Don’t cry for me, Dear Ohio! The truth is that this Ohio congressman who once was voted out of a GOP leadership position by his House colleagues has staged an amazing comeback. The future House Speaker hopes to learn from the mistakes of his one-time ally, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Mitch McConnell

The Senate Minority Leader showed how a minority can rule in our democratic system. The Kentucky Republican’s “just say no” philosophy stifled much of the liberal Democratic agenda for most of 2010.

The Paul family

Texas Rep. Ron Paul breezed to re-election, as usual. The big news was the stunning success of his son (and fellow doctor) Rand. The junior Paul, a Tea Party loyalist, shocked the GOP establishment in the Republican primary and whipped a popular Democrat in the general election. They will become the first “son-father” team in Senate-House history.

Hillary Clinton

Even while President Obama’s approval ratings sank, his Secretary of State remained popular . . . even among Republicans. Her tough-on-terrorists talk and diplomatic skill have managed to please hawks at home and anti-American skeptics abroad.

Bill Clinton

When Democrats were in trouble and wanted a president to campaign for them, who did they call? Bill Clinton. The 42nd president was credited with helping Democratic candidates win victories in Pennsylvania, California and other states. A slumping President Obama couldn’t match Clinton’s batting average.

George W. Bush

Another president’s ratings were going up as President Obama’s were going down. George W. Bush, who left office as the most unpopular president since the disgraced Richard M. Nixon, rebounded in the polls after a national book tour to promote his best-selling memoir, Decision Points.

Marco Rubio

Vice President Rubio? The Republican Party might be looking for a telegenic, conservative Latino from a key swing state (Florida) in 2012. The former Florida House Speaker came out of nowhere to scare GOP Gov. Charlie Crist out of the Republican primary and then crush Crist and hapless Democrat Kendrick Meek in the general election.

Bob Gates

One non-politician makes our list. Defense Secretary Bob Gates, who served under both Presidents Bush and Obama, managed to avoid a military mutiny over repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bans out-of-the-closet gays from the armed forces. He’s a rare player in Washington who is respected across partisan and ideological lines. Too bad he’s likely to leave his post in 2011.

Jim DeMint

The South Carolina Republican, perhaps the most conservative member of the Senate, became both a kingmaker and a thorn in the side of the party’s establishment in 2010. He butted heads with Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the chair of the Senate GOP campaign committee, in GOP primary battles in states from New Hampshire to Delaware, with varying degrees of success. Still, DeMint made himself a force to be reckoned with on the Republican Right.

Kevin McCarthy

Never heard of this guy? You will. He’s not the old-time Hollywood actor. He’s a rising star among congressional Republicans. The California conservative was elected to No. 3 House leadership job after just two terms in office. The former small businessman from Bakersfield seems likely to be a key player in the ideological battles of 2011 &#151 and beyond.

Meredith McDermott/Hearst Newspapers

Nancy Pelosi goes from the most powerful person on Capitol Hill to leader of the oppressed minority.

Losers

Nancy Pelosi

The soon-to-be-former Speaker of the House goes from formidable political figure to leader of the smallest bloc of Democratic House members since 1948. The San Francisco liberal will have fewer pesky centrists to deal with, but she’ll have a president prepared to cut deals with congressional Republicans rather than the largely irrelevant House Democrats.

Barack Obama

Until the not-very-lame lame duck session, President Obama was headed for the No. 1 spot on the list of political losers of 2010. The president’s plunging popularity in the South and the industrial heartland cost his party dearly in the midterm elections. But he’s had some huge legislative victories in 2010, ranging from health-care reform to repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

John McCain

A maverick no more, the Arizona senator managed to alienate old friends without making new friends. The 2008 GOP presidential candidate’s run as a bipartisan dealmaker are over. Now, he’s more like the irascible old guy hurling insults at the kid from down the street (a.k.a. President Obama).

Russ Feingold

John McCain’s most famous Democratic partner, fellow campaign reformer Russ Feingold, had a horrible year. In January, the McCain-Feingold campaign reform law was struck down by the Supreme Court. In November, the maverick Wisconsin Democrat got canned by his constituents.

Arlen Specter

The veteran Pennsylvania senator didn’t make it to November. This Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Democrat got canned by his old/new Democratic constituents in the new/old party’s primary. To add insult to injury, conservative Republican Pat Toomey, who almost unseated centrist Specter in the GOP primary six years ago, narrowly won the seat in the general election.

Meg Whitman

She lost a lot more than an election. The former eBay CEO invested more than $150 million of her fortune on a costly misadventure also called a campaign for governor of California.

Mike Castle

For four decades, Mike Castle was the most durable politician in Delaware, a moderate Republican who was popular across party lines and never lost a race. But he’d never run against a witch before. Conservative insurgent Christine O’Donnell, who boasted of once dabbling in witchcraft and satanic altars and the like, upset Castle in the Republican primary. The result of the Delaware melodrama: Democrats not only won the Senate seat, they also took Castle’s old House seat from the GOP.

Charlie Rangel

The gravel-voiced New York City Democrat has gone from chairman of one of the most powerful committees on Capitol Hill to forlorn back-bencher. Rangel lost his Ways & Means Committee chairmanship amid an ethics probe, then was convicted by his colleagues and censured. Still, he won re-election with some 80 percent of the vote. So he’ll be back. Sort of.

Tom DeLay

For years, conservative Republican firebrand Tom DeLay said he was the victim of a political witch hunt conducted by a partisan Democratic district attorney. Whether he’s right or wrong on that one, he’s also now a convicted felon. The former U.S. House Majority Leader from Sugar Land was found guilty of conspiracy and money laundering by a jury of his peers in Austin, the most liberal big city in Texas.

John Edwards

The 2004 Democratic vice presidential candidate saw his political career end in the most tawdry way: cheating on his terminally ill wife, having a “love child” out of wedlock and then getting outed by the National Enquirer. Elizabeth Edwards’ tragic death in December only served to put an exclamation point on this tale of hubris and self-indulgence.